To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family's remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than twenty years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the twentieth century.

Ethan Muller is struggling to establish his reputation as a dealer in the cut-throat world of contemporary art when he stumbles onto a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in a decaying New York slum. An elderly tenant named Victor Cracke has disappeared, leaving behind an enormous trove of original artwork. Ethan launches a successful show with the art until the police show up to talk to him, it seems that Victor had a nasty past.